Personality reorganization.

Abstract

Personality ReorganizationTHE PREVIOUS chapter has pointed out the manifold developmental gains at the puberal stage. As one may expect, a major personality transformation also sets in when the individual enters the adolescent phases of growth and maturation. Stirred up and made possible through the stmctural maturation within the glandular and neuromuscular systems, the personality reorganization unfolds itself simultaneously in many of its dimensions and facets. CHANGING SELF-AWARENESSWhen an adult or older child puts on a new suit of clothes or merely a new hat, it tends to increase his self-observation, and his feelings of self-adequacy or inadequacy may become more noticeable at these times. Growth of any part or aspect of the organism is likely to promote heightened self-awareness and stir up attitudes related to one's self-evaluation. It is therefore easy to understand that puberal transformations within various bodily systems will affect the pattem of the total personaUty and the concept of self. Growing bodily structures and changes in proportions, all approaching the adult's physique, stimulate change of attitudes toward one's self and others. New vistas of experience and behavior appear. Feelings of self-might and self-worth may be magnified if growth is consistent with one's model, which is formulated in one's mind through observation of others in an advanced pattern of growth. Feelings of inadequacy and inferiority may emerge or be strengthened ii one notices morphological differences and interprets them as deviations or deficiencies from the standard. At this transi-^ tional age, one is very much, concemed about his appearance because he is now more self-conscious than before and capable of expanded^ self-evaluation. He comes to realize, for example, that his appearance 182